Laura Williams, LPC-MHSP

Co-Owner, EMDR Trained, DARTT

My name is Laura Williams and I am one of the co-owners of Be Found Counseling, part of the core faculty at the Healing Our Core Issues Institute (HOCI) and host of Encountering You, a podcast based on the basic principles of the HOCI. It has been a wild ride to get to today and I continue to be in awe of the calling God has placed me in. Being a counselor is not a profession or a job—it is so much more than that. It is the unique opportunity to witness the healing work of the community of people I come in contact with, both with clients and fellow counselors.Many people ask me how I do the work I do every day and my resounding response is I get to see hope EVERY day. I get to witness healing EVERY day. I get to be a small part of God’s redemption story EVERY day.

On a personal level, I have known I wanted to be a counselor since I was 22 years old. I graduated with my master’s degree in 2005 and planned to start my career shortly thereafter.  However, as God does, he shakes things up a bit, and my journey has looked a lot different than I expected. Today, I look back and I know he knew EXACTLY what he was doing. After 3 children, 3 moves, other jobs, deaths, births, transitions, struggle, my own healing and just a lot of life, I started Be Found Counseling in 2017. I want to be very clear—I am NOT a Christian counselor nor do I do biblical counseling. I am quite simply a believer in the way Jesus lived his life, seeking to bring people out of shame into a place of honor. Whether you are a Christian or not, I believe Jesus loved people well and that is the way I live my life. My deep desire is that people feel unconditional love when we are together.

I have been trained by the Healing Our Core Issues Institute and am honored to be part of their faculty. Our model focuses our work around our worth as humans, how to grow the ability to have healthy boundaries with ourselves and in relationships, creating meaning out of the reality that we are human and imperfect, taking responsibility for our needs and wants, creating joy and spontaneity in our lives and learning to grow a secure attachment to ourselves and in our relationships. It is life-changing. IT WORKS. I feel like many of us find ourselves in the wilderness in different parts of our lives at multiple points in our lives. What this model offers is: hope in the wilderness when we feel depressed, anxious, hopeless, helpless, angry, lonely, sad, or scared. And it offers a foundation from which you can heal from over and over again. What I know is that after experiencing the transformation that happens through this work, I know longer fear the wilderness—I am ready. And I am honored to jump into the wilderness with you.